The following is a summary of “Extracellular vesicle biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” published in the November 2023  issue of Urology by Li, et al.

Extracellular vesicle (EV) biomarkers show promise as diagnostic and screening tools for several types of cancer. More and more evidence suggests that EV biomarkers can be used as diagnostic markers for prostate cancer (CaP). However, there are different kinds of information about how well EV indicators work for diagnosing CaP.  For a study, researchers sought to summarize how well EV indicators work for diagnosing CaP. They carefully looked through PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science from the beginning until September 12, 2022, for studies examining how well EV indicators could diagnose CaP. 

They put together a summary of the pooled sensitivity and specificity that were found using a random-effects model. They found 19 studies with 976 CaP cases and 676 healthy controls. One of the studies did separate validation tests. Ten studies looked at EV RNAs, six looked at EV proteins, and nine looked at biomarker sets. The most common RNAs and proteins used to diagnose CaP were miR-141, miR-221, and PSMA. 

There was a 70% (95% CI: 68%–71%) sensitivity and specificity for each RNA and protein, an 85% (95% CI: 81%–87%) sensitivity, and an 83% (95% CI: 80%–86%) specificity. It was 84% sensitive (95% CI: 82%–86%) and 86% specific (95% CI: 84%–88%) for all the EV panels. The tests may have been limited by the ways they were able to separate and find EVs. EV biomarkers showed promise as a way to diagnose CaP. Improving methods for isolating and finding EVs will have big effects on how these new benign biomarkers can be used in clinical practice.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1078143923002958